Cameron urges Scotland not to rip apart "family of nations"

British Prime Minister David Cameron says he would be ''heartbroken'' if Scots vote for independence from the United Kingdom in next week's referendum. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

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ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday (September 10) that he would be heartbroken if Scots vote in next week's referendum on independence to tear apart the family of the nations of the United Kingdom.
Cameron, speaking at the Scottish Widows building in Edinburgh, also cautioned that a currency union with an independent Scotland would not work and that if Scots did vote for secession, Britain would not share the pound.
"I care hugely about this extraordinary country, this United Kingdom that we have built together and that's what I want to talk about today because I would be heartbroken if this family of nations that we have put together and that we have done such amazing things together if this family of nations was torn apart," Cameron said, adding that a vote on independence went far beyond dissatisfaction with the present Conservative government.
"Sometimes because it's an election, because it's a ballot I think people can feel it is a bit like a general election - that you make a decision and five years later you can make another decision if you are fed up with the effing Tories, give them a kick and then maybe we'll think again. This is totally different to a general election: This a decision about not the next five years it's a decision about the next century. And of course it's absolutely the Scottish people and the Scottish people alone who should make that choice but I think it's really important everyone knows the scale of the choice being made," said Cameron who is visiting Scotland in an attempt to stem a steep last minute rise in secessionist support ahead of a Sept. 18 referendum on independence.
In a sign of new panic in the British ruling elite over the fate of the 307-year-old union, Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband scrapped their weekly question-and-answer session in parliament to speak at separate events in Scotland.
"We do not want this family of nations to be ripped apart," Cameron, 47, said in an opinion piece published in the Daily Mail newspaper. "The United Kingdom is a precious and special country."
Cameron has until now been largely absent from the debate after conceding that his privileged background and centre-right politics mean he is not the best person to win over Scots, who returned just one Conservative lawmaker out of 59 in 2010.
Given the unpopularity of the Conservatives in Scotland, Cameron's trip is fraught with danger: if Scots vote for independence, Cameron will be blamed just as Britain prepares for a national election planned for May 2015.
Cameron, Miliband and third party Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - all English born - raced up to Scotland.
They spoke at rallies in major cities surrounded by supporters bearing "No" posters. But nationalist leader Alex Salmond said the visits were a sign of panic that would only help the secessionist "Yes" cause.
Several opinion poll surveys have shown a surge in support for independence over recent weeks, discomfiting investors and raising the biggest internal challenge to the United Kingdom since Irish independence almost a century ago.

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